Farming and food production have strong connections to us all.Â Join us on a journey through three film nights as we explore some of the darker sides of our relationship with food.Â Issues ranging from industrial factory farming and genetically engineering of food to the loss of food sovereignty and threat to food security will be addressed.Â Weâ??ll have a short discussion of some of the problems raised and pose solutions and actions we can all take.

The short documentary on Melbourneâ??s â??Food not Bombsâ?? (6 min) will be followed by a documentary titled â??We feed the worldâ?? (95 min - subtitles) which investigates food and globalisation, fishermen and farmers, drivers and high-powered corporate executives, the flow of goods and cash, a film about scarcity amid plenty. Desert consists of the spoof Matrix animation titled â??Meatrixâ?? (5 min) where Moothius and Leo discover the impacts of factory farming.

Â Wednesday 9th July, 6.30pm

The feature documentary â??Lost in Palm Oilâ?? (63 min) investigates the negative impacts that oil palm plantations have on forests, climate change, water pollution, biodiversity, with a focus on Indigenous communities in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.Â How does this relate to food?Â Palm oil shows us that food issues, forests, people, culture and animals are interconnected.Â Palm Oil is used in 1 in 10 supermarket products, yet there no requirement for it to be labelled.Â Guest speaker Jessica McKelson from the Melbourne Zoo Orangutan Sanctuary will present an uplifting slide show of her recent trip to Nyaru Menteng Gunung Leseur National Park in Indonesia where she saw the impacts of Palm Oil on the Orangutan population first hand.Â The wild organutan population is heading towards extinction, but the rescues and release work witnessed by Jess gives us hope that there is a future for them.

There is little monitoring of agrochemicals in surface waters in Victoria. Water authorities have the best set of information in Victoria about pesticides in drinking water, but in many cases even this is most likely woefully inadequate.

Pesticides detected in Victorian domestic water supplies included some such as 2,4-D, which is classified by the IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) as a Class 2B carcinogen - possibly carcinogenic to humans. 2,4-D is also known as an endocrine disruptor.

John Brumby and Kevin Rudd say that climate change is the biggest challenge humanity faces and their top priority, but their actions tell a different story.

We are calling for Victorians to join the Climate Emergency Rally on July 5. We want to send a wake-up call to state and federal governments that they are heading in the wrong direction. New coal, new freeways and desalination plants increase our use of and reliance on fossil fuels dramatically at a time when we must be cutting our use even more dramatically. We are calling on governments to implement sustainable alternatives to these irresponsible and expensive projects. Alternatives such as renewable energy and public transport.

We call on all community groups and individuals to join us to send this important message to the government. We are going to form a 140-metre-long human sign to spell the words "Climate Emergency". Please organise your group to send endorsement, tell everyone you know, and come on the day wearing something red to symbolise emergency.

Hear what the world's leading climate scientists are discovering about the speed of climate change, the potential impacts on our way of life, and what we need to do to safeguard our future.

Sir Rod Eddington has recommended we spend $18 billion on transport infrastructure, but says this will have â??minimalâ?? impact on transport emission trends. Meanwhile transport emissions are forecast to grow by more than 60% over 1999 levels by 2020. Can we do better?

Government ministers claim freeways offer environmental benefits and getting more â??cleanâ?? cars on the road is the solution, but are they effective?

Guest speakers include:

David Spratt David Spratt is a climate-policy analyst and co-founder of Carbon Equity. Together with Philip Sutton, David co-authored Climate Code Red which meticulously documents extensive scientific evidence that the global warming crisis is far worse than official reports and national governments have indicated â?? and that weâ??re almost at the point of no return.

Dr Patrick Moriarty Paddy Moriarty is an Honorary Research Associate at Monash University undertaking research in areas such as urban land use and transport and alternative energy. Paddy is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Australasian Centre for the Governance and Management of Urban Transport (GAMUT) at the University of Melbourne and has published extensively on alternative fuels, energy efficiency and transport systems.

Elliot Fishman Elliot Fishman is a policy advisor with the Cycling Promotion Fund and Director of the Institute for Sensible Transport. Elliot has recently co-authored a report on the health benefits of cycling and what governments need to do to encourage more people to ride instead of drive.

Get excited about Thursdays in May... at the Edinburgh Castle in Brunswick you are in for treat with a seductive selection of musical delicacies ranging from ambient pop and acoustic folk to hip-hop and gypsy punk.

All proceeds go directly to the Barmah-Millewa Campaign, to save the worldâ??s largest river red gum forest from logging and achieve land justice for the Yorta Yorta people.

The Radioactive Exposure Tour is on again. Join Friends of the Earth for a journey to remote northern South Australia where we will visit the Olympic Dam uranium mine at Roxby Downs, the Beverley Uranium Project in the Gammon Ranges, the beautiful Lake Eyre and Mound Springs environments and meet with indigenous peoples and local communities campaigning against the nuclear industry. The tour offers a unique opportunity to go out on to country and witness the impacts of the nuclear industry on people and the environment. Indigenous people across the world suffer most directly from the impacts of the nuclear industry, this â??radioactive racism' is a major focus of the tour.

You won't see this on reality TV.....So get on the bus, get out under the desert stars and get ready to listen!

Cost: $600 per person or $450 concession.

Total cost of the tour will include travel, accommodation and organic vegetarian food plus paying the rent to aboriginal communities. Sponsorship request letters are available should you wish to apply for donation from an organisation that you are involved with.

With $150 million of state and federal government grants this new coal fire power station has benefited from a large injection of taxpayer money to continue VictoriaÃ­s reliance on coal based electricity. The proposed HRL coal fire power plant is one of the first of the so-called Ã«clean coalÃ­ power plants scheduled to be built, and if allowed to go ahead will expand AustraliaÃ­s reliance on polluting fossil fuel sources of energy such as coal, to the detriment of the clean, green renewable energy solutions available to us. A key component of the FoEM climate campaign is to create ways in which people from all walks of life can become part of the rapidly growing campaign to halt climate change. With a strong focus on community engagement and movement building, as well as tackling Victoria's incredibly polluting brown coal based power sector. FoEM provides a strong climate campaign in Victoria that recognises we need urgent action to halt climate change; combining deep cuts in our greenhouse pollution, a shift to clean green renewable energy sources, energy and resource efficiency with the need for doing so in a just and equitable way.

The case for a sustainability emergency published by FoE, finds that serious climate-change impacts are already happening, more quickly and at lower global temperature rises than previously projected. Download this must-read report to learn more about the latest science on climate change and what we can do to halt dangerous climate change here

Please take the time (less than a minute) to send a letter to Peter Garrett and help stop the proposed dredging of Port Phillip Bay - just click here to use our simple form now. (This link will take you to an e-lobby on the FoE International website)

Friends of the Earth acknowledge that we meet and work on the land of the Wurundjeri people and that sovereignty of the land of the Kulin Nation were never ceded. We pay respect to their Elders, past and present, and acknowledge the pivotal role that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to play within the Australian community.